Tournament Report

The 2^nd Dorset Online Rapidplay Championship proved to be successful with 34 players taking part. It also used a virtual face to face ‘chat room’ for the players and it was pleasing to see 12 to 15 people attending the Opening Ceremony at 9.15am in the ‘chat room’.

There were many exciting games and the tournament ran to schedule finishing around 1.45pm. In total, 15 players won cash prizes which was almost half of the competitors.

In the Individual competition, Peter Anderson (Ringwood) is to be congratulated for coming 1^st, accumulating the same score as last year of 6 points out of 7 (and an exceptional 2514 Lichess performance). Mike Duggan (Poole) and Paul Hampton (Seaton) came equal 2^nd with 5.5 points.

Other prize winners were as follows:

• The 1800 to 1899 rating section was won jointly by Adam Ursell (Highcliffe) and Rob Halse (Highcliffe) with 5 points.

• The 1650 to 1799 rating section was won jointly by Jamie Doyle (Southbourne), Peter Manning (New Milton) and Tim Jones (New Milton) with 4 points.

• The 1500 to 1649 rating section was won jointly by Femi Oloyede (Bournemouth), Zander Booth (Poole) and Leo Camopy (Poole) with 4 points.

• The Under 1500 rating section was won jointly by Finn Schell (Southbourne), Florence Spirling (Southbourne) and Dan Ursell (Highcliffe) with 3 points.

• The Veteran’s prize was won by Russ Pegg (Southbourne) with 5 points.

• The 3 Junior prizes were won by Jamie Doyle (Southbourne), Zander Booth (Poole) and Leo Camopy (Poole) who all scored 4 points.

• In the Team competition, Bright Bishops (Jamie, Zander, Finn & Florence) came 1st with 18 points, Highcliffe came 2^nd with 17 points and New Milton / Ringwood came 3^rd with 16 points in a close and exciting finish.

The total prize fund was increased to £215 as some prizes were shared.

I would like to thank:

• Peter Anderson for maintaining an excellent, informative Dorset Rapidplay page on the website.
• All players for the excellent, exciting chess, an enjoyable tournament and for making it very easy to run.

And finally … please spare a thought for Adam Ursell who was travelling 100 miles to London yesterday whilst playing in the tournament, firstly as a passenger in a car to Brighton, then by overground train, finishing with an underground journey where signal was at best, intermittent, and yet he still scored 5 points!

Martin Simons
Tournament Controller
7th March 2022